The Capitalization of Liberal Islamic Radicalism for Political Power and Economic Resources

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201113.051How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Islamic radicalism, conflict resolution, ethnic and religious conflict, social mobilization, political power, economic resources and sociology

Abstract

Against the existing literature that has largely disparaged radicalism for its potential to destabilize the state politics, this paper argues that liberal radicalism, another variant of radicalism, has had instead the potential to unite Muslims of different Islamic schools, and to form a shared collective action among them, for strengthening their identity against domination of other believers. Drawn upon a quantitative survey among college Muslim students, and backed up by in-depth interviews with college lecturers conducted in the city of Ambon, the paper reveals that in such a city that is predominantly inhabited by Christians as in Ambon, the liberal radicalism is devised by Muslims to survive against Christian hegemony, without which their existence would vanish. Rather than portraying radicalism as enemy, this paper goes on to examine the dynamics of liberal radicalism as a social movement that has gradually liberated and, therefore, transformed ordinary Muslims into a member of the high class society, i.e. they are no longer marginalized in politics, underdeveloped in economy, or low in educational attainment. While radicalism is initially drawn upon religious texts in supporting its action, it is largely manipulated as a strategic move by the Ambonese Muslims for winning accesses to political power and economic resources. Therefore, radicalism is not in itself a goal, but a medium in which its final destination is materialized through achieved domination in politics and economy.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Rinduan Zain
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/13
TI  - The Capitalization of Liberal Islamic Radicalism for Political Power and Economic Resources
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st Raden Intan International Conference on Muslim Societies and Social Sciences (RIICMuSSS 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 270
EP  - 276
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201113.051
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201113.051
ID  - Zain2020
ER  -